What We Want from MechWarrior

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Some ideas that will make the upcoming reboot an instant classic.

By Jeff Haynes

Earlier this year, we were thrilled when Piranha Games and Smith & Tinker announced the reboot of the MechWarrior franchise. It had been seven years since PC gamers had the chance to leap into the cockpit of a 30 ton mech and blow apart rival pilots with lasers, rockets and other weapons. But with the decision of the re-launching of the franchise came a wealth of questions: What's the new story of this revamped series? How large would the single player campaign be? Will multiplayer be as chaotic and enjoyable as the previous games?

While Piranha and Smith & Tinker have been quietly slaving away at the title, I thought I'd put together a list of things that should hopefully be included within this revamped title. While these are just suggestions, hopefully including some of these items would help the new MechWarrior tower above other action games for some time to come while fixing some of the past mistakes of the previous games.

Use the conflict and chaos of BattleTech history to create a rich back story for the game.

The Inner Sphere of the BattleTech Universe has an extremely rich and detailed history that's surrounded in political intrigue, betrayal and chaos as each one of the Great Houses fights for their dominance over each other. In fact, most players of Battletech were introduced to the franchise during the period of the Third Succession War, where the five main factions constantly fought over planets. Since the new game takes place during this period on disputed world between Davion and Kurita space, let's hope that this becomes more than a simple battle between Fed Rats and Snakes. Hopefully, Planet Deshler (the setting for this new title) has economic value that appeals to House Marik, is tactically appealing to House Liao or has a familial connection to House Steiner to draw these other factions into the battle. Make it more complex, include a historical analysis of what makes this world so vital and the fans will love you for it.

Bring popular and recognizable Merc units into the game.

Currently, the only details that we have about the struggle in the game is that House Kurita decides to invade Davion-held Deshler in an attempt to reclaim what they consider is rightfully theirs. But this shouldn't simply be an assault by these two sides. The game should bring in many of the recognizable mercenary units to help fight out battles across the planet. For example, does the Davion world send out a distress signal to the Kell Hounds or Wolf's Dragoons because of prior work contracts? Would the Waco Rangers possibly land on the planet to cause trouble so House Liao could sweep in and pick up the pieces? Pulling in Merc companies would provide more that simple cannon fodder for players to assault during the game; it would pit them against worthy opponents.

Scale the difficulty for Lance configurations, or vary rewards based on lances.

Right now, we know that the game is being tuned so up to four players can co-operatively play through the campaign and experience what it's like to control a lance, a four man group of mechs. While the concept is great to give players the sense of what it's like to roll through as a foursome of heavy or assault mechs, this could make it incredibly easy to break enemy defenses, especially if you have a group of friends that coordinate their tactics well. To ensure that the game is challenging, there's two potential approaches that can be taken.

The first would be to scale the difficulty of the game based on the lance that you decide to field. If you field a lance of light mechs, like Hornets or Javelins, you'll go up against elementals, other battle armors and a lot of turrets. You'll also face off against a few medium class mechs like Shadow Cats or Hellhounds, and perhaps a Thor or Daishi every now and then, requiring a lot of coordination and fast strikes to successfully survive these encounters. However, if you choose to roll with a foursome of Warhammers or Fafnirs, expect to go up against increased numbers of heavy or assault mechs, all launching their weapons in concentrated bursts at your lance.

The other option is to increase the rewards for launching into a mission with radically different load outs. You're advised to launch with one heavy and mediums and instead you launch with all lights? Bonus cash, prestige points and experience for you if you survive.

There has to be a deep character progression system, including a loyalty slider for your hired pilots.

MechWarrior pilots known how to get the most out of their equipment, and it would make sense that they would gain further experience on the battlefield, learning new skills or tactics that they can employ to eliminate enemies. Adding an experience system isn't anything radically new, but hopefully MechWarrior will have additional facets to developing and promoting hired pilots. For example, the game could allow you to spend experience points to allow veteran pilots to teach skills to the recruits. You could also make promotions for characters within your lances boost their resilience and piloting skills, along with their confidence in battle.

However, you should also be encouraged to use all the pilots that you collect, so you aren't constantly holding onto characters and never using them. What if there's a loyalty or fatigue system included within the game based on the number of times you employ a pilot, forcing you to cycle characters to keep them happy? Failure to do so could result in pilots abandoning or potentially turning on you in a battle situation because they've received a better offer from the other side. The game could even include missions that call into question the loyalty of some soldiers: Choosing to perform one objective over another could boost the loyalty of some while eroding the confidence of others. No one said that war, or balancing the needs and wants of mech pilots, would be easy.

There needs to be multiple mission paths with multiple endings.

We know that the current plan is to have the game change based on the kind of mech that you choose to pilot, but who says that your path across Deshler needs to be a linear experience? There should be branching paths thrown into missions, where choosing to take or refuse different secondary objectives changes the plot and what's available to you. For example, let's say that you choose to ally yourself with one group of mercs instead of another. The rival group could come back to attack you at a later time, or decide to become mortal enemies of your lance. Perhaps there should be additional dilemmas that should be thrown in for Adrian Khol, the main character. Should he spend extra time searching for equipment, or respond to a distress signal from a childhood friend? The consequences of his decisions could echo throughout the game, setting up intriguing possibilities for expansion packs and sequels.